Panel criticizes fracking study, UT ethics rules

Lead researcher failed to disclose ties to industry, reviewers find

Updated 7:50 am, Friday, December 7, 2012

Charles Chip Groat, a professor of geological sciences at UT Austin, led the study of hydraulic fracturing released in February by the UT Energy Institute, of which he is an associate director.

Charles Chip Groat, a professor of geological sciences at UT Austin, led the study of hydraulic fracturing released in February by the UT Energy Institute, of which he is an associate director.

Photo: USGS

Panel criticizes fracking study, UT ethics rules

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SAN ANTONIO - A review panel that examined conflict-of-interest charges against the leader of a University of Texas at Austin study on hydraulic fracturing has called for the university to adopt "rigorous" policies governing ethics rules for research for university personnel.

In its report, released on Thursday, the panel also harshly criticized the study's findings, which found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing polluted groundwater. The review panel said the study wasn't "fact based."

The university formed the panel last summer when learning the study's leader, Dr. Charles "Chip" Groat, was an industry insider. He served as a director and held stock in a company that did hydraulic fracturing.

Groat retired from his university faculty position last month. The director of the UT Energy Institute, Raymond Orbach, though he had no direct role in overseeing Groat's report, resigned Monday, the university said in a statement.

With fracking, drillers use water, sand and chemicals to blast shale formations deep underground to free oil and natural gas.

The panel said that little scientific data was presented as part of the study, and that its conclusions were distorted as it moved through various drafts.

Another key problem, the panel continued, was Groat's failure to disclose his conflict of interest, and a university policy on conflicts that was "poorly crafted and even less well enforced."

When he participated in the fracking study, Groat, then associate director of the Energy Institute, was a paid director of Houston-based Plains Exploration and Productions Co., held shares in the company and received stock awards. In May, when the company's proxy was sent to shareholders, he owned shares worth more than $1.58 million based on the company's per-share price at the time.

Removed from website

The reviewers said Groat basically assembled a team whose white papers became the basis of the fracking study, and the papers weren't subject to "serious peer review." In addition, the team included only one active scientist.

The panel recommended that the study be removed from the Energy Institute's website, and a university spokeswoman said Thursday that had been done.

Kevin Connor, director of the Public Accountability Initiative in Buffalo, N.Y., called the 42-page report - the product of a three-month review - "damning."

"It sheds some much-needed sunlight on the whole process of the original fracking report, and it's not a pretty picture," said Connor, an early critic of the university's fracking study.

But he praised UT and the review panel, saying, "They deserve a lot of credit for taking a stand on academic integrity and agreeing to follow the recommendations in the report."

UT agrees with panel

The panel also said the Institute should demand annual disclosure of relevant financial relations of all involved in its projects. Also, the institute should develop a rigorous quality control framework, and the role of all participants in its projects should be "thoroughly documented."

The university said it agrees with the panel's conclusions and will adopt its recommendations.

"We would like to address this from the standpoint of institutional trust and reliability," University Provost Steven Leslie said Thursday.

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